Medical imaging systems, such as computerized tomography (“CT”) scanners and magnetic resonance imaging (“MRI”) scanners, allow a physician to examine a patient's internal organs and areas of the patient's body that require a thorough examination for medical treatment. In use, a visualizing scanner outputs two-dimensional (“2D”) and three-dimensional (“3D”) medical images that can include a sequence of computerized cross-sectional images of a certain body organ, which is then interpreted by reviewing physician, such as a specialized radiologist.
Commonly, a patient is referred for a visual scan by a general practitioner or an expert (or specialized) practitioner. A series of 2D and sometimes 3D medical images (or scans) are subsequently obtained. The scan is then forwarded to a reviewing physician (such as a radiologist) who is responsible for the analysis and diagnosis of the scan. Radiologists are typically trained to analyze medical images from various parts of a patient's body, such as medical images of the brain, abdomen, spine, chest, pelvis and joints. After a radiologist (or other reviewing physician) analyzes the medical images, he or she prepares a document (“Radiology Report”) that includes radiological findings, and sometimes key images from the scan that best show the findings. The radiology report is then sent back to the referring practitioner.
In most hospitals and radiology centers, the scan is transferred to a picture archiving communication system (“PACS”) before being accessed by the radiologists. A PACS is a computer system that acquires, transmits, stores, retrieves, and displays digital images and related patient information from a variety of imaging sources and communicates the information over a network. Many hospitals are also equipped with a radiology information system (“RIS”)—used by radiology departments to perform patient tracking and scheduling, result reporting and image tracking. Medical images are typically stored in an independent format, such as a Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (“DICOM”) format. Electronic images and reports are transmitted digitally via PACS, which eliminates the need to manually file, retrieve or transport film jackets. A PACS typically includes four components: the imaging modalities, such as computer axial tomography (“CAT”) or CT, MRI, position emission tomography (“PET”), or PET/CT; a secured network for the transmission of patient information; workstations for interpreting and reviewing images; and long and short term archives for the storage and retrieval of images and reports.
There are image retrieval and processing systems and methods available in the art. For example, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/178,560 to Yu (“Yu”), entitled “SYSTEMS FOR GENERATING RADIOLOGY REPORTS,” which is entirely incorporated herein by reference, teaches a method for generating a patient report, comprising presenting an operator with an on screen menu of standardized types of reports and having the operator select a standardized type of report from the on screen menu of standardized types of reports. Yu further teaches presenting the operator with an on screen organ list corresponding to the selected standardized type of report; for each organ, presenting the operator with a menu of standard medical descriptions corresponding to the organ; and having the operator determine a medical description corresponding to each organ. Yu teaches outputting a patient report describing the medical description of each organ.
As another example, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/805,532 to Nekrich (“Nekrich”), entitled “RADIOLOGY CASE DISTRIBUTION AND SORTING SYSTEMS AND METHODS,” which is entirely incorporated herein by reference, teaches a system and method for processing an image, including a means for receiving image information, a means for queuing the image information, and a means for receiving profile information for a plurality of image analysts. The system of Nekrich can further include a means for selecting an image analyst from the plurality of image analysts by comparing the image information from the profile information.
As another example, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/224,652 to Bar-Aviv et al. (“Bar-Aviv”), entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD OF AUTOMATIC PRIORITIZATION AND ANALYSIS OF MEDICAL IMAGES,” which is entirely incorporated herein by reference, teaches a system for analyzing a source medical image of a body organ. The system of Bar-Aviv comprises an input unit for obtaining the source medical image having three dimensions or more, a feature extraction unit that is designed for obtaining a number of features of the body organ from the source medical image, and a classification unit that is designed for estimating a priority level according to the features.
While current medical image retrieval and processing systems have provided physicians tremendous capabilities in storing and retrieving medical images, there are limitations associated with these systems. For instance, for a typical scan, a hospital may obtain hundreds of images, and a reviewing physician might not have time to review each of the images to determine whether a patient has a particular type of medical condition. In cases in which a hospital scans several patients in a relatively short period of time, the hospital might not have the resources to timely review each patient's medical images to determine whether a physician should review the image further, and whether the patient has a particular type of medical condition. In addition, modern medical imaging systems can operate much more quickly than older systems, which has led to a decrease in the time it takes to generate a scan. While a shorter scan time could be beneficial for providing rapid patient care, it has resulted in the generation of a significant amount of data that must be compiled, analyzed and presented to a reviewing physician. Further, modern medical imaging systems can operate at higher resolutions, resulting in increased number of higher resolution two-dimensional images and/or three-dimensional images (or scans thereof). As the time to generate scans decreases and the number of scans (and images obtained) per patient increases, hospitals without sufficient resources might not be able to review each image and provide patients with medical care in an accurate and efficient manner. Further, while some hospitals might have medical imaging, processing and retrieval systems for handling scans, current systems are not capable of accurately and efficiently prioritizing scans. In addition, current systems do not provide scan reviewing and patient treating physicians with the capability to acquire accurate patient-specific diagnostic information from each of the images or scans.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for improved imaging, analysis, prioritization and reporting systems. In particular, there is a need in the art for methods and systems for accurately and efficiently analyzing and prioritizing medical images, such as images acquired from CT scans and MRIs, to provide better patient risk management.